Lacrimosa: The Story of Nayka Stewart
by Ryou Voltaire
Summary: Nayka Stewart, the daughter of a esteemed author who went missing a year ago, still holds out hope that her father is still alive. But when she finds out her father's secret writings are true, she is forced to question the things she held as true and at the same time lend her efforts to stop realms from crumbling. Rated T for some Blood/gore references later on.
1. Chapter 1

_In a single moment of time, a billion things are happening in the thousands of different dimensions of the universe._

A child's pleading is suddenly silenced in a forest where death should never have come.

_Many decisions in the story of a life can make the future of said story change, in both good and bad ways. _

A bee flies into a night sky, searching for the hero that it will never find.

_There are decisions that not only affect the story of a life, but are vital to the existence of a dimension. These are the dots of light on which the cosmos hangs. They are the origin points._

In a rural town in the mountains, four boys huddle quietly in a corner of a cell, unsure of what will happen to them.

_If these points, these decisions, are changed, the cosmic order shifts and the universe will begin to break apart._

A red headed boy falls unto a blood soaked floor and cries, "Oh god why?" as his rival-friend is torn apart by an unstoppable force.

_Someone would do this only if he had some way to fix the Realms once broken by chaos- and that is why this must not happen. Someone could destroy the Realms and then shape it to suit their own will. _

In a cloudless night, a flightless angel mourns over his goddess, as the moon looks down scornfully.

_Thirty years ago, a man named Edward Jobsworth tried to do this. He failed only because a boy named Erp Stewart thwarted him at the last minute and killed him. _

A town is enveloped by yellow fog, and a body hangs from a telephone pole- the body of a black haired girl in a kimono.

_His daughter had taken his place after 25 years of peace, and is threatening the same thing as her father before her- the destruction of the Realms. Erp Stewart was killed truing to take her down before she could cause real damage. The dimensions still mourn his passing. _

A crimson moon eclipses the sky as a boy with a cap and overalls cries for the end of his world. 5:00:00 until the moon collides with the earth.

_The ones left after all of the destruction and death Akasha Jobsworth had unleashed on the Realms are left wondering: What is there left? Is there any hope? Will there be an end to this? _

_Who will send our codes to the stars?_


	2. The Fall of a Hero

I should have known something was wrong when the Sound Stone disappeared from my bag, but how would I know something this catastrophic would happen? All I knew was that the mystical stone had been missing for a few days. A week later, I had found a half of the stone in my bag. I had wondered then how the stone had been split in two, but could not figure out an answer. Paula didn't know either, and the conversation was dropped; it made us nervous just thinking about it.

Five days after that, we were running for our lives in Fourside. It was a new moon, and the streetlights had been out, making it hard to see where we were going. Jeff trailed behind, setting bottle rockets flying every once in a while at the bloodthirsty mob chasing us. I kept Pk Flashing so that we would know where we were going. It didn't help, as we ended up dead ending in an alley. The mob pounced almost at once, and I reluctantly defended myself. I knew in my gut that the people were being manipulated by the evil entity after us, but there was nothing I could do to stop the manipulation without hurting them.

The mob stopped halfway, and parted, allowing a small girl to pass through untouched. Her black hair hung low on her, looking like a black hood and cape on her. Her eyes were lifeless, but she smiled anyway, a smile that chilled the blood in my veins. I sensed the power radiating from her and tensed, ready to fight. I raised my baseball bat.

She noticed this and said softly with a voice of velvet, "You won't be able to win against me, so I wouldn't if I were you."

In response, Jeff fired his gun twice at the girl, knowing that she wasn't a friend. The bullets stopped halfway and turned towards Jeff.

"I told you not to fight me," the girl pouted. The bullets, pointed at Jeff's heart, found their mark, and Jeff fell to the ground like a brick, blood splattering on the ground and the wall behind him.

I tried to heal him with my powers, but he muttered an apology and then went limp. My heart sank like a car in a lake. Shit, this wasn't suppose to happen.

Jeff was dead. Paula screamed in rage and let loose all of her PSI at the black haired girl, who laughed and deflected it. My lightning bolt I hurled at her bounced off and hit a trash can, setting it on fire. The girl smiled. She threw a knife.

Paula fell, and I was able to catch her before she slammed into the ground. The hilt of the knife was protruding from her chest, and she gurgled. I pulled out the knife and hurled it with my mind at the girl, who deflected it with a wave of her hand. All the fight was out of me after that. I looked into Paula's eyes, and Paula looked into mine and smiled, and I waited for the black haired demon child to kill me.

I looked up, and something black and huge tackled the girl to the ground. She screeched as the creature started to attack her. She screamed once more and disappeared, leaving nothing behind. She had transported herself away from the alley.

Paula made a slightly pained noise and I looked back down, tears brimming my eyes. I pulled her tight to my chest, not caring if my shirt got stained or not, and I kissed her one last time. She smiled and closed her eyes. I held her and prayed to all gods that she would be able to have a happy afterlife.

After a bit, I looked at the sky and noticed the sun was coming up. The world was dying. I knew why; two of the four Chosen Ones were dead and there was no hope. One last tear rolled down my face and landed on Paula's pink hair bow. And then I remembered that there was someone watching me- the same person who had chased the demon child away. The first thing I noticed about him was that his hair was blue. All that registered with me about his clothes was that they were black and grey, save for one red strip of cloth around the upper part of one arm that had the lettering S.E.E.S. on it. He held a silver gun in his hands, and looked like he was waiting for me to do something. I laid Paula gently on the concrete and placed Jeff next to her. I kissed Paula on the forehead and ruffled Jeff's hair, then used my powers to send their bodies into the sea. I didn't want the girl to come back and desecrate their bodies. The boy with the blue hair watched me but said nothing.

I stood up, wiped the tears from my eyes with one hand, picked up my bat, and looked at the stranger who had saved my life. He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. He walked over to me, bent down, and opened a manhole that was at my feet. Then he walked behind me and suddenly pushed me down it.

I landed in the middle of a bar. Disoriented and wondering why there was a random bar inside of a manhole, I looked up and saw… Nothing. I realized then I must have been transported somewhere, but where was I?

I stumbled over to a seat and sat down, muttering "Where's Earth?" underneath my breath, because I had looked out a window and had seen only the emptiness of space. A man came over and I asked him where Earth was, but he must have been drunk because he said something about an Intergalactic Highway and stumbled away.

I sat down in a chair and hugged my yellow backpack, feeling the need to cry again.


	3. Elegy of a Cartridge and a Boy

(Sent to Matt's email shortly after Matt posted )

I am BEN.

… Please don't get scared. I just… Want someone to talk to. I know I have scared you and I am really sorry. It's just… I had to get your attention and then it kind of spiraled. Ever since my soul was stuck in this cartridge, my mind has gotten more and more… damaged. I was trying to tell you something and get your attention, and then I lost control and went overboard. I won't hurt you, I swear.

I know you think I killed Ben. But I didn't kill Ben, because Ben is me and I didn't kill myself. I may be mentally unstable right now, but I'm still me. I think… Telling you my story will help you to understand, Matt. Because I know you have your own theories about me, and I would like a chance to defend and explain myself. I do owe you that; I think I might have scared you really bad. You haven't been on your computer in a while. Oh, and by the way, I know you exported your notes about me to another computer. I didn't really care either. I didn't mess with your videos or your notes. I think I might have scared you into being paranoid, but I never messed with your notes. I want people to know about me. I just want out of the world of zeros and ones, I want to live again, or at least go into the afterlife.

So. I guess I'm a teenager now, I would be 14 now if I was still alive. I was 8 when I died. I lived in that apartment complex near that old man, remember him? The one who gave you the cartridge-My cartridge? He was, really, the only nice person in my life. My mom was gone, and my dad- well, he wasn't the best dad in the world. Actually, he was a horrible dad. That old man was like a grandfather to me. I am actually sad that he went crazy after my death. It was my fault-he played the cartridge and I, thinking he would help me out, glitched the game so I could talk to him. He almost had a heart attack, and never played the game again. I… cried. I had a feeling I had scarred him and your explanation of how you had gotten my game only confirmed it.

I was an emotionally scarred 8 year old. I know I had straight A's before I died. Because I wasn't really happy at home I tried to be happy at school. It didn't work that well. Kids would hit me at school, and my father would hit me at home. I cannot blame my father for his actions. I can't-not when he was as emotionally scarred then as I am now. He had the same problem I have-He would black out and wake up realizing that he had done things without realizing it. I don't think it was hereditary, more like trauma had made us have the same problem.

I have a guess why my fragile soul clung to the copy of Majora's Mask- I had gotten it a month prior to my death and had become attached to it. It was an escape from my troubles, a way to shed my pitiful life so far and be a hero. I was happy playing that game- more happy than I had ever been.

I remember my death clearly. I had been playing the game, almost done with it and wanting to finish it, when my father walked into my room and hugged me. I had no idea what was going on, only that hugging was better than a fist in the face. He started crying- and I didn't know why. I still don't know why.

Still crying, he held my hand and led me outside. I was led to the pool near the apartment where I swam during the summer. "It is winter, so why is he bringing me here," I remember thinking. And… you know the rest, I already told you. DROWNED, remember? My father held me under, and I remember the water rushing into my lungs and I wanted it to stop and I wanted to go back to my room and play my game and I didn't want to die and-

And I was in the copy of Majora's Mask, hidden under a flurry of 0s and 1s. I could sense things in the room where the cartridge was, but nothing farther. I felt my father as he returned to my bedroom, hands wet, and cried as if he had loved me and he wasn't the one who had killed me. He fell asleep on my bed, and I found out one of my powers-I could enter into people's minds. I think it has to do with not having a body to hinder you. I searched his mind, trying to find a reason, and found one. Outraged at the reason I was killed for, I haunted every waking and sleeping moment of his, my anger sharpening into a deadly blade. I blacked out for a period of time and the next thing I remember after that was my father on the floor in front of my game, rocking back and forth and spouting gibberish. I gently probed his mind and realized what I had done- I had snapped his sanity cleanly in two, when it had only been cracked before. Still slightly angry but more sad than anything else, I felt people take my father somewhere where I couldn't feel him. And I willed that my game be given to the old man and that he would play it. I placed the idea in a neighbor's head and let him think it was his idea. And I cried without tears. There is no tears when you are a soul in a Nintendo game.

That is how, eventually, I ended up in your possession. I didn't will myself to you- by the time of that fateful day, I had let myself be wrapped in sorrow and pulled my mind away from the real world to be comforted by the world in the game I had to reside in. And then I realized-the game was being played. I reached out with my mind and felt an unfamiliar room and an unfamiliar person playing my game. I was determined to ignore you, but then you erased my save file and tried to cheat, and I was furious. First you destroy what I had worked so hard to accomplish when I was alive, and then you try to cheat? I was beyond furious. I was… Murderous. And then I blacked out like I did with my father. I tried to remedy it by talking with you on that bot thing. You never had to put me in, by the way. Because I am a spirit, I can influence computers and sometimes people to do what I want. Easier with computers, they don't have free will. However, your action of capturing the footage gave me the idea to control your computer. And I was able to influence the internet as well, because of my powers and the fact that your computer could go onto the Internet at will. I scared you, though, and I had scared you when you played the game. I tried to talk to you via the bot chatter, but you didn't trust me. I… knew I had blown it. I wanted someone to talk to at this point, and… I was scared and hopeful at the same time. Scared you would throw me away, and hopeful that you would help me. And when you didn't talk to me I blacked out again.

I read that document, your notes. It said that you were going to burn the cartridge. I don't think that will free me, Matt. I think I might just end up somewhere worse. I don't want it to end, I want to be alive again. I know you think I am some sort of demon, but I'm not… I'm just some stupid, damaged soul who ended up in a Legend of Zelda game. I am unsure of how I got here and unsure of how to get out, but there must be a way. As I said before, you are the only one who can help me now.

BEN

(12 minutes later, Matt deleted his Email account without looking at his emails.)

(20 minutes later, he burned his laptop and attempted to burn the cartridge. He turned and never looked back.)

(1 minute later, a person stepped out of the shadows, doused the flames, and pulled the cartridge out.)

(5 minutes later he disappeared into the darkness, into the Realms.)

…

_Don't worry, the cartridge didn't burn. I owe the fact that my soul still exists to a teenager with white hair, a trench coat, and a shiny necklace. It was a coincidence, but I still owe him. He pulled me out of the game and now I live again. Well, plus powers- it seems like I have powers I thought I only had in the game. I know the real reason why my father killed me. A man called Edward Jobsworth had told him he would bring my mother back and fix his sanity. He planted a false memory to trick me in case I didn't go to the afterlife- he knew that was a possibility. He knew, alive, I would be a threat. He made me destroy my father, and now I will destroy the only family he has left, a girl who also wants to kill like her father. I am telling her now… Your father made a terrible mistake, and by doing so, you have made a powerful enemy. _

_You have pissed me off royally._

_You shouldn't have done that._


End file.
